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Ron Marke’s Stories

Story of ‘Hope’

Is the human race fixated on greed and self-interest? Is it doomed to be involved in conflicts, unable to compromise and rid itself of fear and suspicion? Will it be able to stop believing in dogmas — political, religious, economic and racial — major causes of strife and misery?

Humans, on the other hand, have achieved much since recorded history began, creating beautiful architecture, literature, art, music, engineering wonders and in many areas of the sciences, most of which appear to have benefited humanity.

Yet, humans repeat the same mistakes; they don’t learn from history, especially in the fields of war and economics. Perhaps this could be attributed to just stupidity or faulty genes. Few examples come to mind. We haven’t been able to stop wars. We haven’t been able to stop racism or the fears towards asylum seekers coming to our shores. We haven’t been able to stop politicians squabbling and casting aspersions on the leaders and others in order to score points. The media doesn’t help: it has its own agenda by creating sensationalism, increasing its sales of newspapers, radio and TV audiences.

Look at the commercial world. It is full of deception. It is not safe to invest one’s money in stocks and shares that are now controlled through electronic trading.

Paul Sheehan, in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3 March 2012, wrote: “At the end of World War 11, the average holding period for a stock was four years. By 2000, it was eight months. By 2008, it was two months. By last year it was 22 seconds. By now it will be as long as it takes to read these first two paragraphs. The global share market has become less democratic as it becomes more volatile, less ethical as it grows more dangerous, and less stable as it grows more complex.”

So why aren’t there checks and balances to prevent a catastrophe occurring? The threat of this happening is very real. Despite the warning signs, those in charge of high finance choose to ignore this fact.

Humanity cries for order, true democracy, justice, understanding of its rightful needs and happiness. How do we achieve that goal? Through parliaments passing “good” laws that will restrain individual power, powerful corporations and governments, essentially controlling greed, exploitation and abuse of power?

Striving for a utopian solution to the complex morass that humans worldwide are in is not the answer. Nor is tough legislation.